Now is the time for top athletes of snow and ice to begin tapering their form for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February.
Spencer O鈥橞rien of Courtenay appears to be doing just that as the slopestyle star won women鈥檚 gold Saturday at the Dew Tour event in Breckenridge, Colorado.
A bit of improvisation didn鈥檛 hurt the Islander, a five-time X Games medallist, who made her Olympic debut at Sochi in 2014.
鈥淚鈥檓 pretty speechless,鈥� O鈥橞rien said in a statement after shunting Jamie Anderson of the U.S. to the silver medal and Enni Rukajarvi of Finland to the bronze. 鈥淚 really went out there today to do my run. I didn鈥檛 actually get to do the run I wanted, but I鈥檓 just really happy to have put down a good run, and to have stood on top of that podium again.鈥�
Max Parrot of Bromont, Que., won the men鈥檚 gold with Darcy Sharpe of Comox sixth, Mark McMorris of Regina eighth and Tyler Nicholson of North Bay, Ont., 10th.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got a really strong team,鈥� Parrot said.
This was the final slopestyle event that will count toward Olympic qualifying points. The Canadian freestyle ski team to Pyeongchang 2018 will be named early next month.
Darcy Sharpe won silver in the first men鈥檚 slopestyle World Cup event of the season in September at Cardrona, New Zealand. His sister Cassie Sharpe, also of Comox, won the first World Cup women鈥檚 ski freestyle halfpipe of the season in Cadrono this fall.
The Sharpes and O鈥橞rien are among a group of Island athletes who grew up skiing and snowboarding on Mount Washington and are looking to Pyeongchang. That emerging group includes ski freestyler Teale Harle of Campbell River, who recorded his first career World Cup victory in March at Silvaplana, Switzerland. Others include Canadian national-team members Carle Brenneman and Mathieu Leduc, both from the Comox Valley, in snowboard-cross and ski-cross, respectively.
